Sckew-wkeitch



'UNIE ALBERT D. BRIGGS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

` SCREW-WRENCH.

.To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT D. BRIGGS, of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Screw-Wrenches; and I do herebydeclare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1, denotes a side elevation, and Fig. 2, a longitudinal section of a screw wrench containing my invention.

My invention or improvement has reference to the wrench for which Letters Patent were granted on the seventeenth day of August, A. D. 1835 to Solyman Merrick. It will also apply to various other wrenches, wherein the sliding jaw is moved by a rotary screw nut working on a male screw cut or formed on the main bar carrying .the stationary jaw of the wrench.

The nature of my invention or improvement consists in the application of a sleeve or tube to the screw nut and to the handle of the wrench so as to encompass the handle and project from the screw nut in manner so as to enable a person while grasping the .handle in one hand to lay hold of the sleeve with the same hand and revolve the same about the handle in such way as to cause the rotation of the nut, and a movement of the sleeve and the movable jaw eitherl toward or away from the stationary jaw, whatever may be the distance of the movable from the stationary jaw in the range of its motion on the main bar.

In rotating the nut of the abovementioned wrench of the said Merrick by the hand by which its handle may be grasped much inconvenience will generally be experienced particularly when the sliding jaw is very near the stationary one, and furthermore, the nut is so short as to render it dificult if not impossible for it to be seized and grasped in the palm of a persons hand, should he desire to employ such in rotating the nut. By my invention or improvement, while the handle is grasped in one hand, the sleeve may be grasped in the palm and by the fingers of the other and be rotated thereby, and thisv with its other advantages renders my invention specially useful and 1mportant.

In the drawings A, denotes the mam bar Ainto and is fixed in the handle D.

E, is the movable or sliding jaw which engages with a screw nut F, which envelops the shank bar A, and screws upon the screw threads. A

G, is the tube or sleeve which encompasses the handle and extends from the nut F, to which it is fastened or it may be formed in one piece of metal with the nut. rlhis sleeve, in length, may be about one half of the handle, and may have its outer surface scored or grooved, or otherwise made rough so as to enable the fingers or hand of a person to hold to it without slipping around on it. In general, the sleeve should be long enough to cover the upper end of the handle and that part of the screw, B, B, which may be between the sleeve and the nut when the two jaws are in contact with one another. Under such circumstances, the sleeve will not only serve to protect the screw from dirt or dust, but will enable a person to revolve the nut with the thumb and forefinger of his hand that may be grasping the handle, and to do this, at whatever distance the jaws may be apart.

It will readily be seen that in case, it may be desirable to obtain a very firm grasp on a nut or anything else, which may be interposed between the jaws, the sleeve willafford the means of so doing as it may be grasped and rotated by one hand, while the other may have hold of the handle.

I make no claim to a nut and screw applied to the movable jaw and main bar of a wrench and for the purpose of operating or moving the said jaw relatively to the stationary jaw; nor do I claim the invention orimprovement which constitutes the subject of the said patent of the said Merrick, nor do I claim the mode of operating the movable jaw as shown in the patent of D. H. Chamberlain dated March 20, 184:9, wherein, the tubular handle has a screw formed within it and rotates on the shank without having any longitudinal motion thereof and furthermore, such rotary handle is not a separate and distinct thing with reference to the handle G, as hereinbefore described as appertaining to my improved wrench. There are important dierences between my improvement and the other inventions as handle and With the nut, in accordance with liereinbefore cited. the movement of the movable jaw E, on the What therefore, I claim is shank A'. The application of the sleeve Gr, to the nut A. D. BRIGGS. fi* 5 F, and the handle D, so as not only to be Witnesses: capable of turning with and rotating the R. F. HAWKINS,

nut, but of moving longitudinally on the l A. L. SOULE. 

